Gate Guarding Work

The work you do as a gate guard is basically filling out a form by writing down the person’s name, their company, vehicle license number, where they are going and the time.

We use a “cheat sheet” where we quickly write down the information on notebook paper on a clipboard then come inside and more neatly transfer that information onto the form.  Here’s Jim transferring the info.

Here is a look at the cheat sheet. Notice we’ve put a loopy piece of Velcro on the clip and the fuzzy piece of Velcro on a Pilot pen. This keeps us from hunting for the pen all the time. Thanks Debbie for that hint.

 

And here is the form we fill out. We keep the forms for as long as we are here, then turn them in. Note the pen attached to the clip.

 

At this gate we have to keep the gate closed at all times because they have breeding deer on this ranch, so we open and close the gate for every vehicle.  As you can see below, our rig is about 30-40 feet from the gate so we do a bit of walking each day, not mentioning up and down the stairs.  On nice days we just sit outside all day, then in the evening I stay inside and go out when the bell rope signals me of an approaching vehicle.  You can see the septic system trailer and the water, 15,000 watt generator and diesel fuel for it on another trailer behind our rig.  These photos are all from inside the ranch looking out.

Those four mercury lights sure light up the area at night as the next photos shows. It has it’s own generator enclosed and but is pretty noisy.  We also have two smaller road lights we can aim on the road as we need.

When The Two Lindas visited us yesterday they were kind enough to take photos of us in our “uniforms”.

We have had so many types of weather this last week so we keep handy a light-weight jacket, heavier coat and rain gear ready to use. Usually I wear a sweat shirt also.

Best piece of equipment I have are the ear plugs I bought at Walmart.  With these inserted in my ears I don’t hear the generator or the bell rope going off at all.  They really block out everything and I’d recommend them.

So that’s the job; pretty easy, open a gate and write down vehicle information and it’s good money. The cons are that you are usually in remote, rural areas far away from shopping of any kind and it is a 24/7 commitment.  Jim got a hankering for ice cream tonight so he made a 45 minute round trip to the gas station by Highway 37. But we are saving money because we can’t go out to dinner together. 

Hope this gives the information so many of you have asked me to share.  If there is anything else, just let me know.

Remember, you are loved (yes, I do say that also to the truck drivers and the land owners gets a kick out of me saying it to him)….makes everyone smile.